Jet lagged to hell and back.

Now then… Holy hell. As I’m hammering out these words, I don’t know where I am, which way is up, or what day it is. One thing I’m fairly certain of is that my industry compatriots who travel to Taiwan four times a year or more are certainly made of a stouter material than I, because I’m here to tell you, sixteen hours aboard an airplane is enough to crack a person.

But in this instance, that’s a small price to pay to have a real live vacation, and to have an actual honeymoon, which after getting married eight years ago, my wife partner and I never had.

So the plan was to scurry off to the place called Bali, and to see there what there was to see. As it turns out, there was quite a lot. Flying into the capital city of Denpasar we met with our driver Nyoman, and made the two hour journey to the city of Ubud where we stayed the first few days. With the American dollar very strong in Bali, one can rent an extremely nice room at a high end resort for about the equivalent of about $50.00 a night. Being that I am generally one of the brokest individuals I know, $50.00 for a room, perhaps $8.00 for a delicious meal, and a dollar for a large bottle of beer is about what I could afford on a good day anyway.

Fortunately my loving parents kicked us some dough to help out, and with it, it took us a long way.

Now, because my words aren’t working so very well, and as the adage goes, a picture is worth at least a thousand of them, I’ll post up a handful of images, with a smattering of descriptions, and let your eyeballs do the walking.

In Ubud we saw monkeys;
Beautiful temples;
Lots of wooden dongs;
And sidewalks that are a drunk person’s worst nightmare;
There were an abundance of bedraggled pups in Ubud. They seem to be all taken care of to some degree, but the one I found lounging here seemed like they knew what they were doing;
After a few days there, we had the opportunity to do a river trip, and see some of the region from a whole different perspective;
I thought it would be funny to use the photo opportunity to pretend like I was sleeping;
From Ubud, we made a side trip by some rice terraces, the Tirta Gangga Water Temple which was the home of the biggest Koi I’ve ever seen (like giant footballs with faces), and the beautiful Tegenungan waterfall, the river flowing out of which was covered in Hippy Litter, some that I dutifully knocked down;
Eventually we made our way to the costal town of Amed, where we stayed for a few days and did some lounging in and/or near the ocean;
From there we went back into the jungle to spend our remaining days in the small village of Sideman. Of all the places we saw, Sideman was by far my favorite. I heard that it was similar to what Ubud was 30 years ago. It was peaceful, save for the chorus of birds and crickets, and the hills were covered in every shade of green this side of Heaven;
Finally, after ten very restful days away, our time to depart arrived. We got a car back to Denpasar where we caught our Hello Kitty plane to Taipei, and then transferred for the 11 hour flight back to San Francisco, and by extension, reality;
At some point I recieved a message from someone asking if I was riding bikes there, to which I responded that I was not.

I find that sometimes the best part of riding bikes is not riding them at all.

So I’m back to the grind, and am feeling recharged. I’ll have a standard post here on Wednesday before buggering off to the Grinduro where Giro has very thoughtfully offered me a booth to decorate and peddle my wares.

If you happen to be up there, swing by and say hello. More importantly however, I’d more than likely appreciate someone just simply reminding me what day it was.